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Archive for March, 2014

Some days you get on the erg, start rowing, but simply don’t have the energy (mentally and / or physically) to do a meaningful steady distance session. Rather than call it a rest day after 1500m of rowing I decided to give a “Tabata” session a go. A very short high intensity reps session, no real thinking is involved. You simply row hard for 20 seconds, “rest” for 10 seconds, and repeat 8 times.

8 x 20sec / 10sec rest:2min40 = 896m / 1:29.2 / 40

The 10 second rests are just sufficient to let the flywheel slow and make you have to accelerate it again at the beginning of the next rep. Therefore you are chasing the split rep after rep, but simply rowing hard for 12 or 13 strokes. The intensity is really pretty high by the end of the session, so certainly a good one in the tool set for a day where time is extremely limited, or motivation for anything long is not there.

14th March:

Something I have wanted to incorporate into my training for a long time is Olympic weight lifting. On the rare occasions these days when I go to the gym to train the free weights are always busy, so when you have very limited training time it is not really the place to lift. So last week I treated myself to a 100kg Olympic barbell set so that I can do regular weight training at home. The core moves I will do at least 2x per week will be the compound moves of cleans, deadlifts, squats and bent over rows. My plan is to spend a few weeks very light to get my body used to the movement patterns, then gradually increase the weight. Friday afternoon was session 1.

15th March:

10000m = 35:56.5 / 1:47.8 / 27

16th March:

10000m = 36:44.6 / 1:50.2 / 26

Followed by session 2 on the weights, but only cleans and deadlifts today.

I have blogged fairly comfortable 10k rows before where I have put in a sub7 for the final 2k. This time I decided to do a sub7 for the penultimate 2k instead. I don’t do a very big volume of training, so I am not too concerned about the intensity level of my “steady distance” work. When I feel I need to go easier I go easier, when I feel like I want to push more, I push more.

This month’s CTC row is an interesting tactical challenge. For the short reps the rest periods are relatively long, but a 333m rep is only about 10% of the overall session distance. So is it worth pushing the first 333m rep harder, or will you lose any advantage gained there on the longer middle reps? Afterall, for every second you go slower on the 999m rep in the middle you need a 3second quicker pace for the 333m to make up for it.

6th March:

10000m = 37:58.9 / 1:53.9 / 23

A proper steady 10k, 1:54s from start to finish.

7th March:

20mins @ 1:52.5 / 24

Friday afternoon I dragged the erg out of the garage and onto the patio for the first outdoor erg of the year. At around 17 degrees C it was a good bit hotter than I have trained in for some time, so perhaps that contributed to feeling tired and not feeling up to doing too much.

8th March:

30mins off-road run

Continuing to make the most of the good weather I skipped the erg today and went for my first run of the year. I need more of these, and to do them regularly, in order to enjoy running and to take away the inevitable after effects I will get over the next day or two from it.

Sunday was the 2014 English Indoor Rowing Championships. Since my last race at BIRC I had been to the US twice (once on holiday, once for work), with the 4 transatlantic flights that entailed, and been out ill for a week. Despite that, training has gone well so I felt confident of being in at least as good form as I had been at BIRC when I set a 2k time of 6:26.2.

The long drive up to Manchester was done on Saturday, with dinner out from some rowing team mates then a night in a hotel due to the early race time on Sunday. I didn’t sleep well, and woke with a headache. Not a good start when you’re racing at 0930, earlier than I ever like to train. I got to the race arena around 0845, and began warming up around 0905. I good 3500m warm up and I felt ready to go.

I always like to start a race with 7 hard strokes to get the stroke rate up, get the flywheel spinning, and overcome the time lag with the race start. I over-cooked it a little, hitting 1:18s on a couple of strokes and taking the lead before backing off the pace. But it got me off to a good start, and helped me to maintain a good stroke rate throughout the middle of the 2k. Going through 500m a little under a 1:36 average I was right where I wanted to be, and continued pulling 1:37 / 1:38 through the middle of the race. I just kept strong and believed in the score I knew I could achieve, and didn’t think more than the next 20 strokes at any point. It wasn’t until I was inside the final 500m then I decided I really wanted to get the seasons best, and beat the time from BIRC. I gradually increased pace, and pushed on hard for the last 200m, hitting mainly 1:30s and 1:31s down the final stretch. The final time was my best in maybe 2 or 3 seasons.

2k = 6:25.4 / 1:36.3 / 33

500m splits:1:35.9 / 341:37.8 / 331:37.6 / 331:34.0 / 35

I am happy with the time and the execution, but perhaps should have remained stronger through the middle and pulled 1:37s more than 1:38s. But I finished strongly, so that might just have cost pace in the final 500m and left me no quicker overall.

Still I am some 13.6 seconds off my race pb though, so there is a lot of work to be done. But having been there before it makes it easier to get back towards there again. I know what needs to be done, and I know how to do it.